No production is worth its salt without a few problems with the network censors, and "After the Fall," the Arthur Miller drama that's been turned into a special for NBC for December showing, co-starring Faye Dunaway and Christopher Plummer, is no exception.
A phrase, "sing inside me," during a love-making scene between the two principals, caused NBC executives to "go through the roof," according to producer-director Gilbert Cates. "Are you going crazy?" one irate executive demanded.
Cates insists the scene is not lewd, only verbally explicit. It's part of a mental flashback sequence where Plummer, as Quentin, the lawyer, is trying the decide whether to marry or not. Several scenes run through his mind including sceme with Maggie (Dunaway), where she's shown on top of him.
Cates cannot understand why anyone whould object to a scene that represents an intellectual exercise, because of the way it's presented, when a broom-handle rape scene was permitted by the same network in a Linda Blair film "Born Innocent."
Hermione Travoeses. vice president, broadcasting standards, demanded that the phrase be deleted. He ordered Cates to take it out but the producer-director took a firm artiistic stand. He said he'd leave it in and the NBC censors could bleep it out.
As he explained: "I did not want to be part of my own destruction." Eventually, reports Cates, the decision was advanced in the NBC hierarchy to Robert Kasmire, vice president of corporate affairs. Cates pleaded with him to look at the preceding hour and 20 minutes leading up to the scene before making a decision. He agreed. "You're absolutely right," he said after viewing it. "Leave it in."
Because "After The Fall" is being telecast from 8:30 to 11:00 p.m, this Tuesday (Ch. 10 only; Ch. 4 has preempted for a Boston Celtics basketball game), scenes that might be considered for adult viewing will be presented late in the evening. The bed scene, as Cates points out, is well into the drama and an important part of the script. It also represents an effort to capture TV immediacy, or the feeling of event television, because he has Plummer addressing the TV audience directly about his marriage dilemma. Then the flashback scenes occur.
Cates insists he would not do anything without dignity. "If it wasn't tasteful" he said, "I wouldn't do it. It's obvious in the scene that Plummer and Dunaway are making love but there isn't total nudity. In fact, there's only one scene where the actress is seen even partially nude and all you see is her back."
One actress in the drama, Jennifer Warren, who plays the wife of Quentin's friend, was nude when Cates shot a scene showing her seducing Quentin, who acquiesces. But according to the show's producer, all you see is her nude from the top of the bust up. "You don't see the nipples."
Speaking of nipples, Cates said, there's one scene where Miss Dunnaway as Maggie, a singer who finds brief happiness with Quentin, has to wear a low cut halter-type dress. Besides the fact that it would be impossible to wear a conventional bra with it, Miss Dunnaway doesn't wear a bra. So the scene was shot without one.
Again cries from the executive floor of NBC were heard. "You can see her nipples," one concerned NBC executive complained to Cates. So the solution, as Cates reports it, was to use a bandaid under the star's gown, or two bandaids.
Cates thinks it's an exercise in futility to take a property like "After The Fall," which allegedly parallels the relationship of Marilyn Monroe to Arthur Miller, and cast any actress in it. He admits he turned thumbs down on one or two major suggestions because he felt the actress would not lend the right touch to the role. He insisted on Miss Dunaway. "More esoteric dramas demand careful casting," he said.
He also favors an atmosphere of creative effort on his set, which means there's room for disagreement without hostility. "I'm opposed to running a police state," he said. "When there's healthy disagreement, it means there's a process going on."
Cates produced "After The Fall" and licensed it to NBC for one showing for $850,000, with an option for a second showing at considerably less. He says he can't make a profit on one license sale but the money invested is recouped in foreign sales. He insists the drama is "not like that crappy Marilyn Monroe thing, 'The Sex Symbol.'"
"Ours," he said, "is a prestigious show, by a Pulitizer Prize playwright, with distinguished cast."
(c) 1974 New York News
THE COVER
Christopher Plummer and Faye Dunaway co-star as the tragic couple of Arthur Miller's play "After The Fall," said to be based on the playwrights illfated romance with the late Marilyn Monroe. The 2 1/2 hour production will be seen on NBC Tuesday night (8:30-11 on Ch. 10).